I visited the Tracks to the Front exhibition at the National Railwaymseum in Utrecht with a colleague/friend
1 A fake Schienenwolf adorns the square in front of the muzeum. Guess what a Schienenwolf does!
2 An overview of the exhibition hall. Space is at a premium, I still don't know why the museum clung this location when the reconstruction was due, so the exhibits where close together
3 A WWI petrol locomotive dating from appr 1915.
4 An infirmerie car
5 A Class 52 WWII war lcomotive. It is de Liberty ship of the rails: the German simply tried outbuild the losses on the eastern front. Over 5000 were built, many of them only after cessation of hostilities from remaining parts stock. Built to last only for the duration of the war these engines soon neede dire repairs. Most countries soon brought them to the scrap yard. A few however opted for a reconstruction and upgrade turning them into extremely useful, versatile and economic motive power. They survived in large numbers the former German Democratic Republic
6 The air pump is presumably a later addition
7 This particular loco is owned by a Dutch Museum Railway
8 All welded self carrying superstructure, fast and material saving construction.
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13 Onather war baby: english austerity engine.
14 Later sold to the Dutch railways.
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16 Again a WD loco
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23 A armoured train. Though prettu convincing the whole thing is a fake. Just some cars with a few welded metal sheet. Clearly this one never would served any purpose in warfare
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29 A model of the locomotive of the German armoured train that was deraild at Mill in the May 1940
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34 WW1 gear on transport
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38 A gate to stop enemy trains from passing. I wouldn't like to be on that train if the driver were be unable to stop in time.
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41 Now what?
42 errrm it is....
43 it is huge!!
44 18" cilber gun, the largest rail gun in existanece (not the largest built)
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56 Little Vink before a bigga gun
57 Little Vink before a bigga gun
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63 This is a real Schienenwolf albeit for narrow gauge
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65 Still no idea what it does?
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69 This was the largest railway gun ever: Dora and Gustav. Two were built. A shell would penetrate 5 meters of concrete and range up to 50 km. It neede 2,500 men to operate the thing. Dora never fired a shot for real, and Gustav was used in the siege of Sebastopol. After having fired 48 rounds the barrel was worn and withdrawn. Both guns were destroyed in 1945.
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73 The 1:8 model gives a good impression of the sheer size of the gun and the soldiers give a good idea of the operation. As you can see the gun had its own narrow gauge railway to move the shells.
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